About the Nag Hammadi Library Section

In December 1945, a set of 52 religious and philosophical texts, hidden in an earthenware jar for 1,600 years, was accidentally unearthed.

This corpus of 1,200 pages is currently conserved at the Coptic Museum in Cairo and contains one text in particular that made the headlines - the Gospel according to Thomas, which was originally called 'the secret words of Jesus written by Thomas'.

The library comprises 13 books, known as codices according to the scientific name given to any collection of sheets folded in two and sown together. These books represent the oldest known specimens to date.

A example of the codices discovered in 1945 at the foot of Gebel el Tarif mountain: most of these codices were protected in a leather case, such as the one shown here.